An international group of astronomers reports the discovery of a new giant exoplanet. The discovery is interesting because it orbits around a red dwarf.
The discovery was made while analyzing data collected by the TESS space telescope. It detected fluctuations in the light of a red dwarf located 605 light-years from Earth. The star is about 40% smaller and less massive than our Sun. Subsequent observations by ground-based observatories confirmed that the light fluctuations caused by exoplanet transits. It was designated TOI-5573 b.
TOI-5573 b attracted the attention of researchers with its size. It belongs to the so-called GEMS class (Giant exoplanet around an M-dwarf). This is a fairly rare population of extrasolar planets with radii about 8-15 times larger than Earth’s and masses at least 80 times that of our parent planet. The fact is that the formation of giant planets in red dwarfs is difficult because of the lower average mass of their protoplanetary disks. They may simply not have enough material to form large nuclei. Therefore, GEMS planets are very rare.
TOI-5573 b has a radius of about 0.87 of Jupiter’s radius and a mass of about 0.35 of Jupiter’s mass, giving a density at 0.66 g/cm³. This is comparable to the average density of Saturn. The orbital period of TOI-5573 b is 8.79 days, and its orbit passes at a distance of 0.07 a. e. (10.4 million km) from the parent star.
According to scientists, TOI-5573 b is estimated to have an equilibrium temperature of 255 °C. Thus, even if it has large moons, it is unlikely that any life could arise on them. Nevertheless, TOI-5573 b is one of the coldest GEMS planets discovered so far. This makes it a very valuable target for studying the atmosphere with the James Webb Telescope.
Earlier we reported that the red dwarf Proxima Centauri, the closest red dwarf to us, may be experiencing invisible flares.
According to Phys.org
